Close up with Carol Frank
June 18, 2009 by Jessica Warnock
Filed under Close Up
Know an inspirational businesswoman whom you think should be featured in Close Up? E-mail us at speakup@womensmag.com.
Carol Frank
Carol Frank is proof of the old adage that if you are passionate about something, you are more likely to be successful at it.
Take her love for animals. She turned it into three successful businesses that she built from the ground and later sold.
It started in Dallas, where she opened the Animal Kingdom pet shop and fell in love with birds. This “over-the-top passion” later grew into Avian Kingdom and Avian Adventures, both now multi-million dollar bird supply businesses.
“When you’re passionate about what you do, you’ll be able to overcome obstacles you never thought possible,” Frank says refering to the three-year lawsuit she went through that nearly destroyed Avian Adventures.
Frank isn’t all business, however. She’s one of those women involved in a jaw-dropping amount of activities. She doesn’t stop at launching multi-million dollar businesses.
In addition to building three successful companies, she is a professional speaker who travels the country speaking to business owners and entrepreneurs. She wrote a book on entrepreneurship called “Do as I Say, Not as I Did: Gaining Wisdom in Business Through the Mistakes of Highly Successful People.”
Frank has also served on the board of several professional and nonprofit organizations, many animal-related; she regularly volunteers for nonprofits, such as the Humane Society; and after selling Avian Adventures in 2007, she moved to Boulder and started a business consulting firm called BirdsEye Consulting.
Oh and start your screaming and crying now, ladies. Frank was on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1995.
Frank believes she can give back to the business community by sharing her expertise and lessoned learned. This is why she started her consulting firm. Frank enjoys helping others realize their dreams. She says learning from other people’s mistakes is the best way to create successful businesses, which is the basis of her book “Do As I Say, Not As I Did!”
Hopefully with her help, she says, businesses can avoid being the mistake examples in volume two.
“I learned so many valuable lessons on what I did wrong. I want other people to not have to go through what I did,” Frank says. “We learn so much more from our mistakes than our successes.”
Frank draws much inspiration and joy from her partner, Murphy Green, the parrot. Her passion for animals is more appreciated in Boulder than in Dallas.
So what’s next for this one-woman business powerhouse? Frank says her dream is to set up a foundation to raise awareness about the plight of parrots and to educate people about birds. Many bird sanctuaries and rescues are overcrowded because so many people buy birds and later decide they don’t want them.
“Animals don’t have anyone else to help them,” Frank says. “I just believe in giving back. I think that when you just do things for yourself and your own world, there’s not enough joy in that.”
We wanted to know more about this inspirational pet-lover and businesswoman, so we asked her five questions about spreading your wings in business, life and then some.
1. What do you wish you knew 20 years ago?
I think the importance of getting everything in writing. Getting agreements and contracts in writing. Or I wish I’d moved out of Texas 20 years ago.
2. What is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I come across as self-confident, but I have a lot of self-doubt. Men in particular are always surprised to know that.
3. What inspires you?
My passion for animals and the fact that they depend on us to take care of them. And I love to do business deals and make things happen. I’m totally inspired by that.
4. What are three things on your bucket list (i.e. three things you want to do before you kick the bucket)?
Find my soulmate and lifetime companion. I want to set up a foundation for parrots to make a difference in their lives. And own a home on the ocean.
5. What makes you laugh?
Murphy. He makes me laugh. I laugh easily. I love to laugh. And he has my exact laugh. It’s funny.
To learn more about Frank, set up a consulting appointment or to order her book, visit www.carolfrank.com.
